Urban bowhunt in Cedar Rapids fells far fewer deer than in previous five years; deer-vehicle crashes continue to decline, city reports
CEDAR RAPIDS — Significantly fewer deer were killed during the city’s annual urban bowhunt, which ended on Sunday, than in the previous five years.
Bowhunters took 207 deer in the just-completed hunt compared to 312 deer in last year’s hunt and compared to 314, 349, 333 and 298 deer in the years before that.
Bert Carmer, an active participant in the city’s bowhunt over its six-year life, on Wednesday theorized that bow hunters took fewer deer in the city this season because fewer deer are in the city. Past hunts have accomplished what they were intended to accomplish, which is to reduce the surplus number of deer in the city, Carmer said.
Greg Buelow, spokesman for the Cedar Rapids Fire Department, which manages the city’s urban bowhunt, said on Wednesday that the city in 2010 continued to see a reduction in the number of deer-vehicle crashes. Concern over the number of crashes was a central reason the city instituted the bowhunt in 2005.
The number of deer-vehicle crashes totaled 193 in 2010, down from 237 in 2009, according to a tally that consists of roadkill data from the Iowa Department of Transportation and the city of Cedar Rapids.
Since the start of the bowhunt program, deer-vehicle crashes, which had numbered more than 500 a year in the city, have dropped some 60 percent, Buelow said.
Tim Thompson, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, on Wednesday said deer numbers are down generally in the state, and he said past bowhunts in Cedar Rapids likely contributed to fewer deer being taken by hunters in the city’s just-completed hunt, which started Sept. 11.
At the same time, Thompson said deer inside Cedar Rapids may have migrated to areas in the city in which hunters have not focused. Hunters, for instance, cannot hunt on public land inside the city limits, he said.
A total of 107 hunters qualified to take part in this year’s Cedar Rapids bowhunt. Sixty-four hunters killed at least one deer while one hunter killed 12.
The meat from 50 of the deer was donated to the DNR’s Help Us Stop Hunger program.
